The E-Sylum: Volume 9, Number 19, May 7, 2006, Article 11
MORE ON THE GREAT BIG SILVER MELT OF 1980
Tom DeLorey writes: "I asked my colleague, Dennis Forgue, who
was working at this location when it was still Rarcoa back in 1980,
what he thinks happened to the huge amounts of silver bought in here
back then. He says that it was almost impossible to resell "junk
silver" at the inflated levels, as the vast majority of people were
selling silver and buying gold. At most they resold 5% of what was
brought in, to speculators who thought it would run up some more.
The rest was shipped to refiners in Europe, as the refiners in
America were way backed up melting silver coins.
Another consideration, raised by my colleague Bob Greenstein, is
that dealers were throwing everything into bags to be melted back
then, including common Proofs and Barber halves, and we never see
bags like that being resold today, just common stuff that people
sat on back then waiting for the top to come again. The spiked
bags got melted."